Which shirt should I keep? Problems with traveling light.

Which shirt should I keep? Problems with traveling light.

Today I got a new shirt! Hurray! Now I’ve got a problem. What do I throw away? I’m traveling with 1 suitcase. That suitcase has a 20kg weight allowance at airports. Finding the best place to live cheap with one suitcase is tough but worth it. It reduces those extra checked bagged charges, which can be half your cost of a ticket if you’re on a discount airline line like Air Asia. The problem though with 1 suitcase is that for every item I acquire, I have to chuck one item.

In North America I normally don’t wash my shirts every time I wear them, but in Asia it’s hot and humid. That means every time I go out I come back needing a shower. Badly. My clothes are sweaty and gross so I really don’t want to wear them again. Into the stink pile they go. I’ve committed to doing laundry weekly. In Asia, if you’re lucky your Air BnB host has a laundry machine you can use. If not its roughly $1 or $2 for 2.5 kg of clothes.

When you’re initially packing you’ll have to carefully consider what you’re bringing and what you’re going to have to get rid of forever. Look around your closet. This is going to be the mother of all purges. I think of the drawers of just tshirts that I abandoned forever when I left. My biggest regret are all the shoes I had to leave behind. I didn’t bring 1 pair of formal shoes, which in hindsight was not a good idea. (My suit looks ridiculous with my running shoes.)

Here’s a tip. You won’t need a swim suit it you have carefully picked the shorts you’re bringing!

Have fun picking your packing because your every decision is going to be with you while you roam the globe looking for the best place to live cheap.